Last updated on September 3rd, 2022
Have you wondered about the Colocation data centers as the server warehouses? Indeed, the thought delivers the right identity of the Colo centers. But if we talk about these centers’ development in recent years, there is so much more to them than just being the server warehouses. The advanced Colocation data centers are known for being a hub of expanded network connectivity, innovation, and business construction. The companies are getting privileges to have the scalable power of cloud computing services, operating with the colocation’s robust reliability, security, and uptime features.
What has let the Colo providers acquire this contemporary identity is the virtualization technology known as containers in the IT world. The Containers have come up as the most potent factor for the colocation services that have set apart the outmoded and inert on-premises solutions.
In the subsequent sections, you will have the insights to comprehend the term Containers and how Kubernetes associate itself with the containers’ functions in the Colocation data centers. Besides, you will discover how the Containers have influenced the Colocation services. Let us now begin to hop into the sections without a pause!
What is a Container?
The container servers a portion of what sophisticated virtual machines offer. A container hosts the particular applications or services, providing them the software-defined application environment. It assists the applications and services to function placidly by rendering all the required codes and dependencies. These codes and dependencies involve system tools, libraries, etc. The container also works to isolate the application from its environment to dodge the variations or setting conflicts of other processes that can obstruct the application from functioning efficiently. It does not incorporate any dedicated operating system, and as a consequence, it becomes way lighter in weight and easily portable.
Since the containers are a great pathway to package the applications and operate them, you need to ensure that they do provide zero downtime in the production environment. In any case, if the container gets down in the process, there has to be another container that will have to get started to fulfill the necessity. When your Container has failed to do its job and think of getting support from another container, you will not get a convenient solution.
To resolve this, Kubernetes came into the way. It equips the system with a framework to operate distributed arrangements resiliently. It takes charge of scaling up, monitoring your application’s failure, providing deployment patterns, and much more. It takes care of scaling and failover for your application, provides deployment patterns, and more.
Now that you have a clear idea of Containers’ function, moving forward, let us check out how containers have influenced the Colocation services in recent years.
How Containers Affect Colocation?
It is apparent that one can quickly deploy a containerized application in a colocation data center and, similarly, to other places. But the question that arises is how the colocation industry has got an effect from it. There are not one but many reasons behind it.
Moving from Public Cloud to Colocation
The most significant reason is the containers enable companies or organizations to migrate the workloads between public clouds and various data centers very easily. The application which is containerized can move seamlessly from one server to another. It does not require to make much modification in the configuration. With the little reconfiguration, the task can process. It helps in differentiating the containerized workload from those operating on the virtual machines on a high level.
Suppose you are operating VMs or bare-metal servers under a public cloud and want to relocate them from a public cloud to the colocation data center. This task will require reconstructing a considerable amount of operations in the environment from their roots. Of course, it will consume your time, money, and efforts. It is not like a drag and drop case. The company has to take out tremendous inertia to migrate its VM-based infrastructure executing in the cloud.
That is why the companies have started to containerize the applications that run in a public cloud to move them to colocation data centers whenever needed in the least time. Moreover, the companies can also move the containerized applications back to the cloud in the future course, quickly according to the situation.
Because of this, the containers have accelerated the trend of moving workloads between clouds and colocation centers. The companies prioritize this trend as it comes up with less commitment, time, effort, and money requirement for deploying applications from one type of platform to another.
Private and Hybrid Clouds on Colocated Infrastructure
In previous times, when a company wants to shift the colocated infrastructure into private and hybrid clouds, it required platforms like OpenStack or vCloud. Such platforms are not entirely simple to blend or integrate with the public cloud services. With the containers and administration tools, Kubernetes, as discussed, simplify this method by creating private or hybrid clouds that are hosted on colocated infrastructure. They also, in the same scenarios, helps in building scalability. Moreover, one can make the hybrid architecture with the Containers and Kubernetes. It will be easy for you to interface between public and private services on the colocated infrastructure.
Acquiring more from Colocated Hardware
Indeed, companies will buy the required hardware for their business. But, many times, they cannot efficiently utilize their hardware property. The third most significant factor that the colocation offers is the colo customers can make the most of their hardware resources. As the colocation will not impose any burden on virtualization technology, the companies can run comparatively more applications on the same server. The expense also gets reduced as the colo customers can acquire this at no additional cost. Ofcourse, the containers’ utilization does not mean your cost expenditure will reduce to half, but you will have the reduction of atleast ten to twenty percent. In the standard cases, it will be around five percent. If the company sees this from a broader perspective and long-term goal, the reduction is nowhere less. It can acquire much more profit than what a company can assume.
Migrating between Colocation Centers
As you have known, the containers make it simpler for the companies to migrate from public clouds to the colocation centers or vice-versa. The company can attain a similar thing while desiring to migrate from one colocation provider’s center to another. That is how the containers have become the determinant to evolve more competition between the various colocation companies. When companies have the advantage to wind up and shift so quickly with little effort and time, the colocations providers have to render the best services possible to their customers. Colocation centers also have to provide lower rates, broader connectivity, wide geographic reach, higher reliability, and security to maintain their top position in the industry.
No doubt, with the advancement of container technology, the colocation centers have got affected in various aspects and at different levels.
Conclusion
Though the containers have a great bargain in common with virtual machines, it still depends on the company’s IT requirements that determine the choice of an individual. If flexibility and operating system management are the core needs, you will have to think twice before opting for containers. But, if you are the one looking for the
less resource-intensive technology that can deliver faster performance, then your pick will be Containers.
